Diane Ackerman + Todd Sacktor

Presented with the Rusk Insitutute
Poet, essayist, and naturalist, Diane Ackerman is the author of two dozen highly acclaimed works of nonfiction and poetry, including the best-selling A Natural History of the Senses. Her most recent book, One Hundred Names for Love, has been described by Booklist as: “A gorgeously engrossing, affecting, sweetly funny, and mind-opening love story of crisis, determination, creativity, and repair.” Her memoir, The Zookeeper’s Wife, received the Orion Book Award. Her other works of nonfiction include: An Alchemy of Mind, a poetics of the brain based on the latest neuroscience; Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden; Deep Play, which considers play, creativity, and our need for transcendence; A Slender Thread, about her work as a crisisline counselor; The Rarest of the Rare and The Moon by Whale Light, in which she explores the plight and fascination of endangered animals; A Natural History of Love; On Extended Wings, her memoir of flying; and A Natural History of the Senses.
Todd C. Sacktor, M.D. is a Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Physiology, Pharmacology, and Neurology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. He pioneered research into a chemical which, when targeting PKMzeta molecules in the brain, has allowed the erasure of specific memories in rats. Dr. Sacktor is also a clinical neurologist and has treated patients with aphasia and other issues.